Hiker Introduction: Rob

1.  Nicknames?

Glob is my gaming screen name.  Not going to give anybody any other ideas.

2.  Previous hiking experience

Not much.  When I was 17, I did a hiking/canoe trip with a church group to the Boundary waters ( The lakes between Minnesota and Ontario).  We had to haul either a 60lbs backpack or a 80lbs canoe between lakes.  Some of the portages where over a mile long.

The things I remember about the trip are:

  *  Lots of mosquitoes.

  *  Missing the Moose.  We were paddling so hard to keep up that we didn't see the moose that was 100ft away.

  *  Falling asleep while tending the fire.  Since this was a trip affiliated with a church, every one in the group was supposed to take turns tending the fire at night to reflect.  When It was my turn, I had other plans.  I dragged my sleeping back and fell asleep at the fire. The next morning they found me asleep by the fire pit and the fire was out.

3.  What made you want to go on this trip?

 *  Done the Ironman/triathlon thing.  Want to try something different.

 *  The Kilimanjaro trek will be challenging, a little scary and will push my limits. 

 *  Being around 6 beautiful single women sounded like a good idea.


4.  What legs of the trip are you going on?

    *  Kilimanjaro (8 day Lemosho trek)

    *  Safari ( Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire)

    *  Zanzibar


5.  What words/phrase do you think you will slightly overuse on the trip?

  *  I have a headache.  Because of the altitude on the climb, I think people are going to be saying this a lot.

  *  HAFE  (The non-serious altitude sickness)
    
  *  It's all good.


6.  What is your greatest fear leading into the climb?

  *  That I won't make it to the top. 

  *  That I will get sick.

  *  My luggage will get lost.

  *  Miss the connection in Amsterdam.

  *  Recently the Terror Warnings.





  *  Watched "Touching the Void" a while ago.  It is a movie that shows what can go wrong in mountaineering.  Even though it doesn't really apply to this climb, it keeps coming to my mind.   The movie is more about hard decisions and the need to keep pushing.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379557/

7.  What are you most looking forward to after the climb?

After 7 days without a shower, so it has to be a shower.

8.  What is going to be your "special phrase" for "the altitude is killing me and you all better leave me alone or else..."?

When hiking with Bekah in Colorado, she would kiddingly hint that she want to "push me off of the mountain."  I reminded her that if she pushed me off a cliff that she would have to go down the mountain, find my body, and get the car keys.

9.  Anything else we should know about you?

A year ago I had a lot of concerns about the trip.  Mountain climbing can be dangerous.  There are all kinds of things that can occur.  One is altitude sickness. 

HAPE - High altitude pulmonary edema.
HACE - High altitude cerebral edema.
HARH - High altitude retinal hemorrhage

When I was in for an eye exam, I asked the eye doctor about HARH.  Instead of talking about HARH the doctor said.   I was watching PBS a few days ago and a guy with no arms and no legs climbed Kilimanjaro.  What the doctor was really trying to say but couldn't was;  There are risks, but go climb the mountain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuH4sK25AwE